GMAT & MBA Admissions Blog

In a previous post on improving your GMAT Quant score, we discussed how certain GMAT Quant concepts are difficult because you may not have been exposed to them for many years – or you may never have learned them at all.  If the latter case, it’s critical to invest the time and potentially money to learn these concepts via online videos, book, classes, or GMAT tutoring.  Simply trying to do practice problems and then reading the answers as a learning strategy can be frustrating.

In this post, we’ll cover the second proven way to increase your GMAT quant score – build your mental math skills.  We’ll address the importance of mental math on the GMAT and provide some easy-to-implement ideas and tips for improving your mental math skills. 

The Importance of Mental Math on the GMAT

While I’d describe myself as above average at math, when I was preparing for the GMAT, I realized two things:

1. I hadn’t taken a pure “math class” in a long time and...
2. I’ve never been good at mental math. 

Context: My Math Background and GMAT Quant Score

First, a little context on my background – which I think many GMAT test takers might relate to.

In high school, I was in the advanced math classes, including Calculus. I took the ACT a few times, and if I can remember that far back, my ACT-Math score was above the 90^th percentile every time – sometimes much higher.  In college, I majored in Finance, which required a lot of math.   After college, I became a business strategy consultant, and built lots of extremely advanced financial valuation models, and gained tons of valuable experience debating arcane and complex valuation principles – which again, involve a lot of math.

All in all, if you’d asked me whether I was “good at math” I would have said yes. 

But, I hadn’t really taken a pure math class in over 6 years.   Also, for whatever reason, doing relatively simple math quickly in front of colleagues, or even figuring out a tip at a restaurant in front of friends, always made me nervous.  I struggled with mental math.

And sure enough, my GMAT math score was lower than I was hoping for.  I ended up scoring very well on verbal, but in only the 75^th percentile on Quant.  I ultimately was able to get into Kellogg, which is at least one data point that violates the 80/80 rule (i.e., a rule of thumb many people believe in, which suggests that top MBA programs want to see both Quant and Verbal scores above the 80^th percentile).

So, based on this experience, this post offers a two part strategy for improving your GMAT quant score:

Culture is an important concept when considering business school.  This is true in a variety of ways.

Whether you’re in high school, college, or graduate school (or you are a working professional preparing for a standardized test like the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, or MCAT, etc.)  hiring a private tutor can be a very good idea and investment.  Through customized instruction focused on an individual’s unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning style, the decision to hire a private tutor can result in better grades or test scores, more efficient use of study time, and ultimately, a faster route to however you’re defining success.

However, it can also be very costly, both in terms of the cost per hour itself, and the investment of time and attention you must put into finding and hiring the right tutor and making the experience successful.  In the past three years of operating MyGuru, which we believe is a premier destination for individuals considering private tutoring, we’ve identified 8 key questions one should ask before hiring a tutor.  You’ll notice that some of these questions should be posed to the tutor, but others are questions you need to ask yourself (or your child).

One of the more difficult GMAT problem types deals with summing an arithmetic sequence. Problem 157 in the 12th edition Official Guide is an example:

You’ve just finished taking the GMAT, and you’re happy with your score.  There are more options for obtaining an MBA than you might think.